And with modern WiFi networks and devices, you can also expect high-performance wireless networking. This is primarily possible thanks to the user of 5GHz bands in most modern devices and WiFi routers. Although, even if you are using a 5GHz router, you may not be getting the most out of your wireless network. Such an issue can be caused when using an improper channel for your 5GHz channel for your WiFi network. Thus, I am here to show you which is the best 5GHz channel for your router. You can also learn more about 5GHz networks and the 5GHz bands in this guide. So, to ensure that your WiFi router is running at its optimum performance, go through this guide until the end and choose the right 5GHz channel.
What is a 5GHz Band?
While choosing the right channel for your 5GHz router is definitely quite important, you must also know about the 5GHz band itself before proceeding further. As you would know, all WiFi routers use radio signals to transmit network data wirelessly. This is generally done by using either the 2.4 GHz band or the 5GHz band.
1 What is a 5GHz Band?2 Which is the Best 5GHz Channel for your Router?2.1 Handling Congestion on 5GHz3 Conclusion
Here, these bands tell you about the frequency of the radio signals being used for data transfer. The primary difference between the 2.4 GHz band and the 5GHz band is that while the 2.4 GHz band offers a better range, the 5GHz band offers much higher network transmission speeds and latency performance. In other words, if you are looking for a high-performance WiFi router, go with a 5GHz one. I have also shared the WiFikill app.
Which is the Best 5GHz Channel for your Router?
Now that you know more about the 5GHz band used by modern WiFi routers and devices, let’s move over to its bands. If you want to test the vulnerabilities in your router, check out the WPS WPA tester app.
When you are talking about 5GHz band WiFi networks, there are a total of 25 predefined channels that might be used by your 5GHz router. This includes bands from 36, 40, 44, and 157, 161, and 165. And while these same channels are also used for scientific and military usage, we will be focusing on their usage in 5GHz WiFi routers. For comparison, a 2.4 GHz router only offers 3 channels which is much less, making it the inferior choice in most cases. If you are using your 5GHz WiFi router at your home or office, it is highly recommended to stick to the UNII-1 channels. This includes channels 36, 400, 44, and 48, which offer the best performance. Not only do you get high network speeds with this channel, but you can also expect a great network range at all times by using these channels. Coming to other channels like channel 165, it is ideal for military usage. While such higher channels may offer a longer range, there might be overlapping and cross-talk issues in such cases. Thankfully, you will not have to manually switch the 5GHz channels in modern WiFi routers to get the best performance. Instead, modern WiFi routers come with Dynamic Frequency Selection or DFS. It allows your WiFi router to automatically pick the right channel and frequency for your current 5GHz router. No matter what channel your 5GHz WiFi router is currently using, the same channel will also be used by all devices currently connected to your WiFi network. This includes mobile devices, smart devices, appliances, networking devices, and everything else.
Handling Congestion on 5GHz
Now that you know about the best 5GHz channel for your router, there’s one more thing you need to know about. Whether using a wired network or a wireless network, congestion should be avoided at all costs. If you are not familiar with congestion, it simply means having too much traffic or data currently in your network.
If your network is congested, data packets can get lost, network performance can drop, and in wireless networks like 5GHz WiFi, devices might even lose connection to your WiFi router. Therefore, when you are talking about 5GHz channels, you also need to handle congestion. As mentioned earlier, the channels 36, 40, 44, and 48 or the UNII-1 channels offer the best performance on your 5GHz network. Although, if all of the devices get connected within these channels, these channels can get congested, resulting in even lower performance than other channels. This becomes an even bigger issue over longer distances as 5GHz has poor signal penetration than 2.4 GHz. Fortunately, DFS or Dynamic Frequency Selection also takes care of this issue. If there are too many devices within a single channel, it automatically shifts them to a different one to prevent congestion.
Conclusion
Well, that’s all for the best 5GHz channel for your router. In the past, WiFi networks were considered inferior to wired networks and were avoided for any high performance or industrial usage. Thankfully, that all changed with the introduction of 5GHz WiFi networks. Not only did that offer much higher speeds over a wireless network, but also a better connection in general. However, even if all the devices connected to your wireless network use the 5GHz WiFi band, they might not be performing at their best performance levels. This is caused when you are using improper channels for your 5GHz WiFi network. Therefore, we have already discussed all the details regarding the best 5GHz channel for your router up above. In fact, there are also details discussed 5GHz bands earlier in this guide. With all these details and information, you should easily pick the best 5GHz channel for your router to get optimum performance out of it. Please make sure to leave your thoughts in the comments section down below. Stay tuned for more updates.
